Pyre Academy
Anya

The red-haired girl who had operated the VR bike was once again plugged into the system. She had a name badge on her uniform, which said 'Anya Fyre'. The Fyre family were quite powerful in Raryst, with Anya's father being the mayor.

Anya was controlling a remote drone, which was flying over the nearby Steppe, she had been ordered to scout for danger nearby. She flew the drone close to the ground, which was technically against protocol, but she liked to feel the thrill of flying so close to the land.

In the distance, she could make out another scout drone, piloted by a fellow student. Upon noticing them, she flew the drone higher to avoid a scalding from the main technician, she then resumed her patrol.

Roisin walked into the Operations Room, where Anya was plugged in. She had been told to bring a file to the room by a teacher. She handed the file to the main technician and looked around.

"What's this room?" Roisin asked the technician.

"This is the Operations Room" said the technician, "from here we run various field ops." He motioned to the VR units. "Those are our remote operatives, they pilot various Crystech-Pyre equipment. Usually to assist the actual field ops" The technician explained.

"So basically, they drive computers?" Roisin asked.

"Uh... yeah, something like that. I guess?" The technician replied scratching his head.

Suddenly, Anya started shaking. The technician ran over to Anya and unplugged her and removed VR visor, he injected her as quickly as he could and she slowly returned to normal.

"It was Imperium troopers, on the far side of the Steppe, a small squadron, about 10 of them." Anya said, out of breath. The technician nodded and ran to a nearby terminal. Roisin approached Anya.

"Hey, are you okay?" Roisin asked.

"Huh?" Anya gave Roisin a weird look.

"Are you okay?" Roisin repeated.

"Uh, yeah, I will be" Anya said, lying back down.

"What happened? That looked scary..." Roisin asked.

"When we suffer a disconnect, it can send the body into shock, so an assistant needs to inject us with a special serum to calm out bodies back down" Anya explained as she stared at the ceiling.

"So... can anyone become an operator?" Roisin asked.

"Curious aren't you?" Anya raised an eyebrow and looked at Roisin, who shrugged. "Well, technically you can, but you need to have implants throughout your body to do it" Anya replied. "The electrical buzzing under your skin can be irritating at first, but you get used to it, I guess" Anya said as she closed her eyes.

"That's pretty cool" Roisin smiled.

"I guess" Anya shrugged. "These implants can make it hard to go outside though, they change your vision to adjust to the VR screens, but as a side effect, the sunshine... it can be painful to see" Anya sighed.

"So you gotta stay inside during the day I guess?" Roisin asked.

"Yeah, nighttime is usually fine, though a full moon can sometimes get you" Anya smiled. "You know, you're pretty annoying" She added.

"Oh... sorry" Roisin frowned, as she moved to stand up. Anya quickly grabbed Roisin's hand to stop her.

"I was gonna say, you're pretty annoying, but... I kinda like you" Anya chuckled.

"Oh, thank you... it's just I'm from Ishtall, and compared to here, we're a bit behind on the tech front." Roisin explained.

"Ah, I'm sorry to hear about your Academy" Anya frowned.

"Thank you" Roisin smiled weakly.

"We'll take Ishtall back, don't worry" Anya patted Roisin's arm.

"One day, hopefully" Roisin nodded. "I'm Roisin by the way" She added.

"I'm Anya, as you can tell from this badge" Anya smiled. The technician walked back over.

"Ready to go back in, Ms. Fyre?" He asked. Anya nodded, then turned to Roisin.

"I'll hopefully see you around, Roisin" Anya smiled.

"Same!" Roisin nodded as she got up and waved, before leaving the room, the technician replaced the goggles on Anya's face and plugged her back in.

This time, she awoke in a large mech, armed with artificial Crystalliam weapons. The Mech was in a facility on the outskirts of Raryst. Anya moved the mech outside, and then headed to the Steppe.

When she reached the Steppe, the mech sprinted as fast as possible across the large expanse, toward where the drone had been shot down. Within seven minutes, the mech approached where the troopers had been. The had seemingly quickly moved on.

"This'll be easy" Anya smiled as the mech activated scanner mode and scanned the grass below for shoe imprints, it detected several of them heading west. The mech slowly and quietly followed the footprints until it came across the troopers.

"This is for giving me a headache!" Anya growled, as she opened fire on the troopers, within seconds the squadron had been wiped out. "Mission Complete" The computer aboard the goggles stated. "Reactivating autopilot and returning to base" It added.

The goggles released and Anya sat up, she rubbed her eyes and took a large swig from the water bottle beside her.

"That should be all for today, Ms. Fyre, you are free to head back to your dorm" The technician smiled. Anya nodded and stood up as the machine automatically disconnected her.

It was still bright out, so Anya headed down to the basement level, which had a long corridor that ran underneath the whole Academy. Down in the basement, they noise of the Academy going about their daily routines was drowned out. It was so silent you could hear a pin drop.

When Anya reached the long corridor, she saw something stood at the far end of the corridor, it was difficult to make out, just a black smudge, with limbs. Anya took a deep breath.

"They're not real Anya, they're just a side effect" She told herself as she began running down the corridor. A large screech echoed through her ears.

"Godsdammit!" She yelled as she covered her ears.

"Stupid shitty implants!" She yelled down the corridor, the black smudge had gone. "Thank the gods" She sighed, and resumed walking down the corridor. About halfway she stopped, she could hear footsteps from behind her now. She closed her eyes and held her breath, before gathering the courage to turn around.

The black smudge was right behind her now.

Without a second thought, she turned back around and ran as fast as she could to the dorm, the footsteps followed her all the way to the dorm staircase, but followed her no further.

"It's just a glitch... just a glitch" Anya told herself as she sat and rubbed her eyes at the top of the stairwell.